Thor saves Captain America
by Michael Redgar
Summary: This a sequel to David Brin's "Thor meets Captain America" neither of these are "Marvel" stories. David Brin has written a sequel called "Life Eaters" my story goes a very different direction than "Life Eaters". Many thanks to David for his encouragement.


Thor saves Captain America

Fanfiction

A sequel to Thor meets Captain America by David Brin

Chris Turing awoke to crashing waves of pain. "Morphine," a voice said.

"You got it, Daddyo," said another. The pain retreated, forced back but not defeated.

Chris opened his eyes and saw a field gray uniform. "Wehrmacht," he thought, and "soldier, not psycho". He saw the three sided atomic wound badge awarded to the survivors of Berlin. "This is bad," then the forbidden Iron Cross. "This is impossible." The darkness returned.

For some time Chris was in and out of consciousness. Nothing he saw made any sense. Sometimes it was Zap O'Leary, sometimes the "impossible" German, a doctor by his uniform. He heard the voice of Thor several times and saw him once, but lacked the strength to defy him.

The world came in focus, the pain a controllable reality. The German army doctor was there. "Who are you?" Chris asked.

"I am Docktor Erwin Rommel. I am called Thor's Valkyrie," he said with pride.

"The Iron Cross?" Chris asked.

"I serve Thor. He does not require that I worship him," Dr Rommel replied.

"The world is changing, and you are to be part of that change, Brave Enemy." Thor spoke as he came into view. Chris stared into his eyes, but this time Thor's image did not waver. "I have forbidden all human sacrifice in my presence, and in my name."

Chris Turing asked, "Why?"

Thor said, "To see if I starve."

"I was to die for calling you a man," stated Chris.

"To be called a man by such as you is not an insult," answered Thor.

The pain returned and Chris heard the call again for morphine as he dropped back into darkness.

Pain let Chris know he was alive. There were days where the pain fled to the back of his consciousness, and days where there was nothing except the pain. Zap O'Leary was always there; often Dr Rommel as well. Chris would see Thor conferring with Dr Rommel upon occasion.

Chris awoke to a day without constant pain, without the blur of morphine. He had time to look about him. He was in a large room in a wood and stone structure. The ceiling at first glance looked like thatch; with a second look it was clearly plaster.

"Where am I now Doctor?" he asked.

"This is part of Thor's hall upon this Earth. You are the first Americans to see this place," answered Dr Rommel.

"Electric lights?" Chris wondered aloud.

"Thor accepts that the world has changed. Captain Turning your bones were set, and are healing well, soon you will begin exercise to rebuild your strength. I warn you, it will be long and painful. I fear you may always walk with a limp, but you will walk," Dr Rommel said with some pride.

Zap tended to Chris' needs, brought his food, took his bedpan, and helped with his exercises. Zap told Chris Dr Rommel was "The Man", answerable only to Thor. Chris began walking again, slowly and painfully. The first thing he saw were the pieces of Odin's spear at the foot of his bed. It made his bed look like a fallen hero's bier, and he thought of Dr Rommel's nickname. Perhaps he had been snatched at the moment of death, but to be returned to the world of the living.

Thor had been a regular visitor, looking in at him and speaking with Dr Rommel. One day Thor came in and sat beside the bed. He began to speak. He spoke without condescension, and in a manner more modern than their first conversation.

"I will tell that which none beside the Aesir have known. You have earned the right with your deed. We entered this world on the very wings of death. We answered a call for help and succor from the heirs of our followers that were set upon at all sides by the evil and decadent. We swore great oaths of support and friendship in this righteous cause. We acted forcefully against a brave and cunning enemy; we turned the tide of the war. And then after a time we began to wonder what was this place, and who the people we succored really were.

"We held a Ting to discuss this world and its people.

"Heimdallr said, 'This not Midgard, and these are not our people. They have lied about who they are, and their part in this war. They swore a great oath with the Rus to the east and broke that oath and invaded them. The Rus would have destroyed them in justice if we had not answered their call. We have made pact with oathbreakers and cravens, in time the only bravery we will see will be in defiance to us.'

Odin said, 'We have sworn mighty oaths on the very Odinspear itself. Would you have us become oathbreakers and cravens?'

Heimdallr replied , 'Lies were spoken, and sworn to, upon the Odinspear. Lies will rot it, the truth shall break it. It will be broken and free us from oaths to the unworthy.'

Odin warned ,'An Aes that the breaks the Odinspear shall die.'

Heimdallr said, 'If need be I shall die in ending this war, a war without valor, purpose, or justice.'

Odin said, 'So be it.'

"Heimdallr hated the Nazis. He considered them a perversion of all that was right and honorable in the Germanic peoples, a living lie. Yet he talked to Hitler himself about ending this war. Hitler said, 'You may make the attempt, but the Allies have no interest in peace.' He said had tried several times to end the war, and had sent the second in command of the Reich to Britain in secret to end this with no success.

"Heimdallr returned from his visit with Hitler and said, 'The Alliance hates the Nazis, and now hate us for our support of the Nazis. We shall make a gesture, one to large to ignore, one their own people will ask about in wonder.'

"And so Heimdallr upon his horse Gulltoppr called forth the Bifrost bridge and sent all the captives in misery to the Alliance."

"In reply you bombed Berlin. Peace died that day, as did Heimdallr and such folk as were working with him towards peace. You burned the very ground and air, tortured the Earth itself. It was as Hitler said, and none of us gave thought to peace after this. You killed your voice among us with this crime."

Chris said, "And yet you told me this was a bad war."

"Even the Aesir grow weary of unending war, war without valor, purpose, or justice.

We all swore upon the spear, none could dispute Odin or the path he led us on while he bore the Odinspear, but you broke the spear. I now take up Heimdallr's path."

Chris replied, "Loki hypnotized me into breaking the spear."

Thor said, "No, Brave Enemy, your will cannot be bent that way, I tried to learn of Loki from you in such fashion and failed."

Chris asked, "Then what broke the spear?"

Thor replied, "The truth broke it. Your truth."

Chris asked, "And what becomes of the war?"

"The killing will cease. Not peace, but the absence of fighting. If need be it will be enforced upon all by the Aesir in concert. Your other companions have been returned to their kin. The one called Zap demanded to stay and tend to you. He used many curious words, but showed great courage in the presence of Thor. The Wehrmacht and the Lufftwaffe hold many Allied prisoners; soon they too will be released."

Chris said, "Loki said all prisoners taken by the Axis were sacrificed."

Thor replied, "Loki is the brother of lies. If you had not brought one of your flame weapons, those of you that survived the battle might have been honored, not sacrificed. Odin insisted you die for bringing such an evil to this place."

Chris said, "I long wondered at the stories I was told of rescue of the helpless, my knowledge of the Aesir from the eddas made me think of Heimdallr at once, but Loki told me this was why he was hunted by the Aesir."

"Loki betrayed Heimdallr to the Alliance, told them where to find him and when. There was always hatred between Heimdallr and Loki. Loki's betrayal was discovered and he fled to you and then lied to you as well." Thor spat out the words.

Chris asked, "What does Hitler think of your plan to stop the war?"

Thor replied, "Hitler is long dead. He died disfigured and raving. He would have none but his SS Doktor tend to him. A man as mad as he was. Berchtesgaden is his tomb."

The next day Chris found a US Army uniform on a stand beside this bed. He shook his head as he examined the uniform. It was someone's best guess at a dress uniform. Clearly it was based on old newsreels and WWI pictures. It did have the twin bars of his rank, also it had an American flag on the right shoulder. "Much better than the bloody rags we were in as we faced torture and death." He thought of all he had been told by Thor. He was no longer a "worm" or "small one". Chris realized he had been spoken to as an equal. Other than his "ally" Loki, the Aesir did not have a reputation for lies or deception, and held truth saying in high regard. When at their first meeting Thor offered to take Chris into his service, Chris had no doubt it was a real offer, though one he would never have accepted. Early in the war the Nazis had attempted to negotiate with the British. The British had rightly considered the Nazis to be liars, and negotiation to be pointless. The Aesir now controlled the Axis, and they had never deigned to speak to the leaders of their enemies at all. Chris's returning health at the hands Thor's physician left him puzzled and more receptive to Thor's words than he would have believed possible.

Thor returned.

Chris asked. "You talked of ending the sacrifices, what of the other Aesir, what do they believe?"

Thor replied, "There will be no more sacrifices. Odin must now accept that which Heimdallr and many of us long believed, that this is not Midgard, and we do not deserve the gift of your lives in this place."

"And Loki?"

"Loki claimed we feed on your death, murder in our name. That we were brought to life by murder. If the war continued, too many would die without sacrifice to us, and without our cattle, we would starve."

"And what of you, God of Thunder?"

"I am Thor Odinson; I rule the lightening; I am the protector of man. I do not live by murder. You destroyed the Odinspear, as Heimdallr foresaw, therefore oaths taken on the spear are also destroyed."

"And if Loki is right?"

"Then the Aesir will die."

The next day began as those before, with exercise and pain. Then Chris heard the sound of a long rumbling boom. He wondered if the Alliance had attacked Gotland again.

He remembered Zap O'Leary telling him that Loki had stolen the trigger for their hydrogen bomb. An h-bomb trigger was a small nuclear bomb in its own right, one designed to ignite the light elements of an h-bomb.

Zap O'Leary came to Chris. "Man, the Aesir and the Nazis are wiggin' out! Somethin' heavy went down at the squat where we were being sliced and diced!" Zap said in a rush.

"We might be sliced and diced after all," Chris thought. The Aesir had a hatred of atomic weapons. Chris had heard from Dr Rommel that the Nazis had developed their own h-bomb, but the Aesir had forbidden its use.

A Wehrmacht Colonel appeared at the door to Chris's room bearing an assault rifle. Chris stiffened, but then noticed the officer was watching the passage as much as he was watching Chris.

Throughout the next day there was much coming and going. At one point Chris heard the sound of gunfire, cutoff by a sound Chris knew was Mjollinr in action. Chris thought of more Allied soldiers snuffed out by the great hammer. The day dragged on, and Chris was reminded of the expression "the fog of war." Clearly, the officer guarding him was there to protect him; he now had a squad of soldiers with him. Chris finally went to sleep, wondering if he would awake the next day.

On the fourth day after the explosion Dr Rommel returned. He checked Chris's progress, then began to speak. "Odin and Loki are no more. A very small nuclear bomb went off. I have been helping the survivors as best I can. A Thule priest told me of what he saw before he died. Loki had been discovered at Odin's high seat at the ritual site. He was trying to put the bomb under the Ebony Throne. The priests that discovered him called upon Odin, he was near and fell upon Loki in great wrath. They grappled close together and the bomb went off. Of those about, only this man survived. He had dropped behind the earthworks at the edge of the ritual site and lived long enough to tell the tale."

"But what of the gunfire, and the sound of the great hammer?" Chris asked.

"The remaining SS priests have gone mad, or perhaps just madder than they were. They came to Thor's hall for you and your companion, Thor refused them, and they returned shooting. There are many that follow Thor that have no love of the SS and battle was joined. We are few and the SS would have prevailed if Thor had not intervened. Few of the Thule cult now remain, and their passing will not be mourned."

"Yet you went to their aid, knowing that you could die as well?" Chris asked

"Men that are suffering are much the same; I was the first to enter Berlin after you destroyed it. I saved any I could."

Dr Rommel rose to leave, and Thor entered the room. He sat down, staring into the fire, and Chris thought of their first meeting. "My father is dead, as is the brother of lies. You have written much upon us in a short time, Brave Enemy. I grieve for my father, and I would have smitten you with Mjollinr if the SS had not demanded you of me. The light of madness was bright in their faces, and I thought of Odin, insisting on the old ways, denying the world about us. I knew then we would have surely come to this time even without you. This is not our world. But we are here and must face the world that is, not the world we wish it to be." Thor went silent and sat staring into the fire for some time.

"'War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.' An American general said that a hundred years ago in our great Civil War. Brother fought brother and for five years we tore at ourselves, we still suffer from the aftermath. The Aesir seem to be slow learning what war means in this world," Chris said.

"Not for all the Valkyries in your fucking, alien pantheon!" Chris started, hearing his own words quoted back at him by Thor. "Have you seen the Valkyries taking the brave to Valhalla? I have not. Where are they? Where is Sif, my wife? What is this place that breeds naught but death?" That last was a shout that left Chris's ears ringing.

Thor turned to Chris. Chris saw grief, sadness, and confusion, no different than what Chris had seen in so many faces in this war. For the first time Chris saw Thor not as alien or god, or even as a "fold in space", but as a person, one that could be hurt much as anyone.

Thor remained with Chris the rest of the day. At one point Thor asked about the Civil War. Chris told him of bravery and cowardice, of Sherman's march to the sea, and of Appomattox, where the Confederate soldiers were pardoned by their victors, and allowed to go home in dignity with their personal weapons and animals.

The remains of Odin's hall and ritual site were buried by men working in short shifts. A mound was raised over the site with a slab engraved with the names of all that died there. Several days later bodies were found on the mound. The surviving high priests of the Thule cult had gathered on the mound at night and slain themselves. Some of Dr Rommel's patients killed themselves as well. Then for some time isolated bodies were found about the island. Old scores were being settled, and there seemed little anyone could do to stop it.

Dr Rommel told Chris the same events were happening throughout Greater Germany and the occupied nations. Hitler's death became known at the same time as Odin's passing, and the suicide and murder spread. Civil war threatened, and the Wehrmacht seized control from the SS and Gestapo. "I think we are cleaning house; you will have no need to do it for us," Dr Rommel said with satisfaction.

Chris wondered if Thor would join those that had died upon Odin's mound. He would show up in Chris's room often just to sit silently staring at the fire. Then one day Thor asked about Zap O'Leary. Where had he come from? Could Chris understand him at all? Chris found himself trying to explain the "beat generation" to an Old Norse God, and something about this struck him as funny, and he began to laugh, the first time since his near death on Odin's altar. And then Chris though he saw the ghost of a smile pass quickly across Thor's face.

Then Chris asked, "What do you want of me, Thor?"

Thor replied, "You will return to your people, after you have seen some of the prisoners released. I ask only that you tell in truth what you have heard and seen."

Chris asked, "Why would my superiors believe me, if I did tell them the Aesir desired peace after more than twenty years of war?"

Thor replied, "You will return with the first of the released captives, and you will bear the shards of the Odinspear."

Chris said, "Thor, after all you have done, saving my life and that of my companions, I still hate you, the Aesir, and the Nazis. Perhaps my hatred has cooled, but it is there and will continue to be there."

Thor said, "As your hatred has grown cold, perhaps we shall also have a cold war. Suspicion, distrust, hatred, but without great battles, for this war can have no victory, and in the end the world would be a burned out cinder. Naught but ashes in the hands of the 'victors'."

Chris said, "Very well. If you have spoken to me truly, and I return to America with the captive soldiers you claim to have, I will tell of all you have spoken, and of the desire of the Aesir for peace."

The POWs were well treated and healthy. The story from one of the Russian POW camps had been the turning point for Chris. One old soldier told Chris of Thor's visit, many years before. "He said nothing, but looked at our rags and our starving bodies; we were nothing but walking skeletons. The camp commandant was called forth by a doktor in Thor's retinue. The hammer flew and the commandant was no more. The doktor then told the remaining staff the prisoners would be treated like the brave men they were. Thor would return, and others would face his displeasure if his will was not obeyed. We were fed, clothed and housed after that. The word went to all the other camps as well. Thor saved us all."

Chris's return to America with the first group of Allied prisoners was met with astonishment, disbelief, and distrust, and then the gradual discovery that Loki had played the Alliance for a fool. The High Command listened to Chris; the survivors of his combat group had already told his story upon their return. Faced with an invasion they could only stop with weapons that would render the world unfit for anyone, the Alliance agreed to "stand down". The Germans were allowed to leave Canada without attack, and were not attacked when they later left Britain. The world would never be as it was before the Aesir; the "Hot War" was ending without celebration, but ending none the less.

"Captain America", Thor had called him, when he insisted on something besides "Brave Enemy". Zap O'Leary had laughed until he choked when he heard that. Chris had believed America would have its own heroes in this war; he would never have thought he would be a hero to the Aesir as well.


End file.
